Scott McGill (Human Powered Well being) and Sam Boardman (L39ION of Los Angeles) are amongst an inflow of 5 new North American riders on the 2024 roster for Mission Echelon Racing.
The US-based Continental squad will embrace a roster of 13 and alter up racing objectives to incorporate occasions like Unbound Gravel and SBT GRVL amongst their rising calendar of European street races to develop health and attain new audiences.
Final season Mission Echelon Racing notched 14 podiums on the street, with all six stage victories coming from Cade Bickmore and Tyler Stites. Each riders reprise roles as GC leaders for 2024 and proceed alongside Trofeo Calvia KOM winner Matt Zimmer and 5 different returning teammates.
“I believe on paper, it is the very best street crew {that a} US continental program has put forth because the Hincapie-Holowesko days. That is the calibre that I see on the roster,” mentioned Eric Hill, director for Mission Echelon Racing.
A novel method for 2024 would be the inclusion of gravel races on the calendar together with choose criteriums and phases races in North America and roughly 40 days of street racing in Europe, which he mentioned was greater than double final yr. For gravel races, he mentioned they’d method them as “North America’s Classics”.
“It’s a must to go the place individuals are and gravel is a good house for us to have a shared expertise with folks and nonetheless get to compete at a extremely excessive degree that prepares us for our key focus of racing, which is on the street and in our rising calendar in Europe. We view these occasions as North America’s Classics,” he advised Cyclingnews, including they might be the first UCI street crew dedicated to sending squads of 4 to 5 riders to gravel races.
“It is an thrilling new problem, and retains guys, you already know, motivated and sharp after they’re dwelling, and hone in on some racing dynamics that may assist us to attain success in Europe.
“We’re stepping again a little bit bit from the criterium scene. We’ll be on the massive 4 stage races in North America. Our hope is that we go and race these races in Europe and we deliver that pleasure and expertise again to the US and assist to develop that scene once more.”
Mission Echelon Racing will once more open their street season in Spain at Problem Mallorca, the place final yr Matt Zimmer gained the KOM classification on the opening cease at Trofeo Calvia. They’re scheduled to race Tour de la Provence and are hoping to verify one other European cease in February earlier than turning to the US for the Tucson Bicycle Basic and a crew camp in Arizona.
Different European stage races on the spring calendar embrace Vuelta ao Antelejo, Tour of Rhodes, with Vuelta a Portugal in the summertime. True to Hill’s phrase, solely a handful of US criteriums have been famous, and as a substitute the off-road listing included Unbound Gravel 100, Belgian Waffle Journey California and North Carolina, SBT GRVL, Chequamegon MTB 40 and Huge Sugar Gravel.
“We imagine that gravel is the very best place for us to construct neighborhood and join with folks by means of a shared expertise to activate upon and develop our mission to coach, equip and empower veterans by means of bodily exercise.”
The crew introduced earlier this fall that Torbjørn Røed, winner of Belgian Waffle Journey Kansas and Huge Sugar Gravel, can be on the roster, however Hill mentioned the crew has launched him from the contract to pursue different alternatives.
Highway races will proceed as the primary focus, with McGill taking a lead position. He had high 10s in 2023 at Maryland Biking Basic and Paris-Chauny for Human Powered Well being, and held the factors classification lead within the early half of the four-day Tour Poitou-Charentes. The yr earlier than on the Continental degree, he gained two phases and the factors classification at Volta a Portugal.
Boardman strikes from three seasons at L39ION of Los Angeles, the place he competed throughout stage racing, criteriums and gravel. He was fifth within the street race at US Professional Highway Nationals and gained the Sunday crit at Saint Francis Tulsa Powerful. Caleb Classen, a 22-year-old from Group California, was fifth in GC Tour of the Gila, sixth in GC Joe Martin Stage Race and gained the younger rider classification at each stage races.
Brendan Rhim joins from American Biking, who lately gained the elite males’s US Madison Monitor Nationwide Championship with Danny Summerhill (American Biking). The ultimate new rider is Canadian Laurent Gervais from Cannondale Echelon p/b 4iiii. He gained the boys’s elite title on the 2023 Canadian Highway Championships in Québec and was fifth on GC at Tour de Beauce.
As a non-profit, Mission Echelon helps veterans and their households, eradicating the boundaries to therapeutic by fostering relationships between veterans, their communities, and the professional athletes. The crew served greater than 530 veterans this yr and supplied greater than $70,000 in veteran scholarships and programming.
Mission Echelon Racing 2024 roster
- Ricky Arnopol (USA)
- Cade Bickmore (USA)
- Sam Boardman (USA)
- Caleb Classen (USA)
- Ethan Craine (New Zealand)
- Laurent Gervais (Canada)
- Zach Gregg (USA)
- Colby Lange (USA)
- Scott McGill (USA)
- Brendan Rhim (USA)
- Hugo Scala Jr (USA)
- Tyler Stites (USA)
- Matt Zimmer (USA)